


Spiral

by Nope



Category: Smallville
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-02-08
Updated: 2004-02-08
Packaged: 2018-11-06 03:07:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11027328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nope/pseuds/Nope
Summary: Lex has a time machine.





	Spiral

fingers drum the wheel. Streetlight windscreen slide. Bright streaks. Dark pools. Silent radio. Cell left behind. Hums along to engine sounds. Exit ramp thump. Silent drop. Metropolis never sleeps. Car slinks through four a.m. hush. Automatic turns; labyrinthine streets. Remote controlled gates, guards. Out; doesn't lock it. "sbaL sumdaC" says windscreen. Magic words. Key-card in breast pocket. Opened door. Flicked switch. Mechanical clank. Lights up; one by one. Metal table rows. Metal shower heads. Green rain. Yellow

grass crackled under-foot as he walked across a lawn dried out by Summer and a greater appreciation for water-use restrictions than his father had. There'd been a Wayne at Wayne Manor since there was Gotham, and maybe even before that; his father called them "Old Money" in a tone that was half insult, half avarice, and always insisted Lex came to the Manor to play with Bruce and Thomas Junior. The boys liked to fight, Zorro masks and plastic swords, while Lex looked on, keeping his clothes neat and his inhaler tight in his sweaty grip. When they played hide-and-go-seek, they never came looking for him, but that's okay; Lex liked to wander around and around the giant

maze of windscreen cracks, wind whistling, world spinning, above, below, and the weirdest feeling, like déjà vu, like inevitability, and he lists all the things he could have done different, like, not boarded the plane, not met that reporter with the unforgettable eyes, not attended LuthorCorp's press conference at all, actually taken the job, actually gone to Smallville when ordered, not tried Club Zero, refused to board the helicopter, to visit the Manor, to, and the plane jerks, and he knows he's not dead because that reporter is right outside the window and he's already said "Kent" before he notices the red, yellow and

blue light. Doorframe leaks. Sharp shadows on the basement steps. Discards gloves. Palm print; open sesame. Lex's treasure. His garage go-cart. Billionaire genius style. Easier than you think. Particle accelerators. Lasers. Suspension mediums. Loops of light. Easy. Like Parsifal. Wagner knew. "Here space turns into time." Everything circles

around, leading not to the centre but joining back up to the paths at the edges of the maze. Lex was disappointed-- not afraid because he knew exactly which turns he took where and he could retrace his path back to his entrance; Lex prided himself on his memory-- but going back meant Bruce and Thomas so he pressed on. From this vantage point, both directions looked exactly the same. Lex took the left and walked on through the twists and

turns around when Julian says "Why do you hate me?" and actually laughs before he can stop himself, because, "I don't hate you, Julian" and opens the lead box, Saint George armour, and laughs again at the way Julian's eyes go wide and the pupils shrink inside irises the same green now as the glowing rosary he takes out of the box and he says "I don't hate you" and means every word while he pulls Julian close and kisses Julian's forehead and nose and lips and loops the glittering rock chain around his brother's, his "brother"'s neck, says "I love you" with his voice even and his eyes

calm. In control. Perfect focus. That's all it needs. Singularity of purpose. Discards jacket. Shirt. Shoes. Service. Gauzy flicker. Low power hum. Lion growling pre-spring. Thinks, "Destiny." Thinks, "Fate." Naked. Thinks, "Bruce laughed for days." Throws the switch. All the power; right there. Steps into the

light is brighter than expected and Lex raised a hand to shield his face. He knew he couldn't have found the centre of the maze, a glance towards the Manor told him that much, so the maze must have had multiple exits. He could have retraced his steps, but Lex decided to follow the edge back around and start his search again at the beginning. He was turning the last corner, by one of the groundskeeper's huts, when he saw Bruce and Thomas running across the lawn towards him and quickly turned back. As he did so, Lex suddenly caught sight of something bright and coiled in the grass. Before he could stop himself, he screamed, leapt back, falling

backwards, pulling the table cloth after, and she screams and screams, so he picks up the fallen wine bottle, splashing Cabernet Sauvignon all over his hands, and hits her with it, no special bullets for Lois, for Chloe, no, he made them all for Clark, all for Superman, liquid green poured and shaped and cooled and loaded into his father's favourite pistol and brought down here to this pleasant restaurant and shot three times into Clark's chest and twice more in Clark's face for good measure, and he can't stop laughing as he leaves, laughs all the way to the park where Sawyer puts him down, right there between the swings and the duck pond, laughing through the blood bubbles as the

bangs rip everything. Time splinters. Space shreds. Mind fragments. Too many thoughts. Sliced. Spliced. Moves across soap bubble world. Change. All change, please. And. Smallville. No Smallville. Clark. No Clark. Not a Luthor. Not a Kent. Infinite diversity. Beating butterfly wings. Grew up a redhead. Grew up poor. Saves his mother. Kills his father. Loves Pamela. Hates Lillian. What difference does it make? Nothing. Always nothing. Inevitable conclusion. No matter how it lies. No matter how it bends. How it twists or turns. It always runs. End to end. Start to finish. Alpha to Omega. Here to there. Inevitable conclusion. Life. Love. Hate. Death. Can't win. Can't lose. Can't cry. Nothing left but

laughter echoed across the grounds as Bruce clung to Thomas, who was chuckling himself and saying "Snake!" over and over. Lex didn't look around. Instead he crawled forward, grass staining his knees, to stare at the blue coiled hose, at its bright gold mouths. His heart loud in his chest, Lex reached out his hand, closing the gap, stretched out his fingers


End file.
